


Faded Star

by Star_LadyC_113



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Kid Peter Quill, Multiple Endings, Team as Family, afterlife in later chapters, i don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-08-03 01:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16316495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_LadyC_113/pseuds/Star_LadyC_113
Summary: Some people say that when you die, you see your whole life flashing before your eyes.Of course Peter Quill didn't know if this was true though. He'd gotten close to dying quite a few times in his life, but things always worked out somehow. Only not this time.Or the one in which Peter dies, sees memories of the past and then wakes up again.





	1. Go to the place that's the best/Spirit in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> So, thanks to anyone who decided to give this... thing I wrote a try, even though it's probably REALLY bad.  
> And English is not my first/native language, so if you find any misakes or something like that please tell me.  
> Otherwise, there's not much to say so have fun reading!

Some people say that when you die, you see your whole life flashing in front of your eyes.  
Of course Peter Quill didn't know if this was true though. He'd gotten close to dying quite a few times in his life, but things always worked out somehow. Only not this time.

It started with memories of his mom. Of his mom when she wasn't in a hospital, strapped to several different machines. When she didn't have to take all kinds of medicine that he didn't know the name of, making her feel tired all the time. When she wasn't almost completely unable to move, having barely enough strength to keep her eyes open, talk and maybe even move her hands a bit.

No, he remembered her the way she was before this time. Full of energy, of life. Almost always smiling, and trying to get him to smile too. How they would listen to the same songs over and over, sharing the Walkman she'd given him so many years ago. Teaching him to dance, eventually even having dance-offs with each other, leaving them exhausted and out of breath afterwards. How they would have movie nights, sometimes after one of their dance-offs, even if they would only watch Footloose for what felt like the 100th time.

He also remembered the quite moments. Watching the stars at night while his mom told him about his father, who he has never met.

"He's an angel, made out of pure light.", she had said, looking up to the sky.

He never really knew what he should think about this. His father, from a place far from earth? Like an alien? Seemed pretty unlikely to him. And even if what his mom had told him was true, he didn't really want to meet his father. Not after he left his mom, the most beautiful woman on earth, maybe even in the entire galaxy, behind.

Then, there were memories of how his mom started to feel unwell one day, how she went to see a doctor, only to come home and break down crying, having been diagnosed with cancer. How, instead of movie nights and dance-offs, she went from treatment to treatment, none being able to help. How other kids at his school started to make fun of him, even more than before. Now, he wasn't just the boy whose father left, who's mom was 'crazy', believing in aliens, no, he was the boy who's weird mom was now sick too, hair falling out, not coming to pick him up from school anymore, not preparing lunch food in the morning, soon not even able to as much as wash clothes, sometimes leaving him with only one clean shirt for a week. To them he was the poor kid who's mom didn't take care of her son, even assuming that she didn't love him at all.  
Of course he knew they were wrong. They didn't understand anything, couldn't know what it was like at his home. He saw his mom try so hard to live as normal as possible, attempting to do tasks she knew she was unable to do by now again and again. He helped her as much as he could, telling her to rest more, doing more and more of the chores she normally did. It didn't matter what the other kids were thinking of him, only his mom mattered.  
Eventually though, they couldn't handle the situation alone anymore and had to ask his grandfather to help them too.

Still, while his grandfathers help did make everything a bit better, as some things just couldn't be done by a an 7 years old child, the problems at school only got worse. And even his Grandfather couldn't help him with that.

He remembered how he got into fights with the other kids at school, the first one happening because they insulted his mom.

They called her ugly, saying that she didn't even look like a woman anymore due to her fallen out hair. Saying that she now looked like one of the aliens she believed in, laughing, while they were pushing him around. He simply lost it then, couldn't take their words anymore. If they would be insulting him, he wouldn't care. Sure, their words would hurt him, he wouldn't deny it, but he could take it. But those words, those insults, they were directed towards his mom. Towards his mom who was already suffering enough, yet trying to pretend that, no, she didn't feel too bad. Towards his mom who he heard cry at night sometimes, locked up inside her room, the lights turned of. Some nights, she cried silently, him only hearing soft sobs. Other nights though, she would start screaming, his grandfather running to her door, telling him to go back into his room on the way. He could hear them talking, his Grandfather trying to calm her down, which could take hours at times. He knew that she felt as if the whole world had turned against her.

And those kids, they dared to insult her? Who did they think they are, judging things they didn't know anything about, saying those things without understanding what his mom was going through?

He remembered how he ended up punching on of the kids right in the face. For a second, this left them confused but then all he could feel was how they pushed him down, hitting and kicking him until he stopped trying to defend himself, eventually just leaving him lying on the ground once they thought he had enough.  
This was pretty much how most of the fights ended. They were never fair, him always being outnumbered.

He remembered how he came home beaten after those fights, trying to hide his wounds from his mom. He knew how bad she felt, saw how she felt worse with every passing day, and he didn't want her to have to worry about him too. But no matter how hard he tried, she always noticed his wounds. At some point he stopped listening to the lectures that followed afterwards.

He remembered how, at night, he would sometimes be woken up by nightmares, ending with him running to his moms room.

If she wasn't crying yet another time, he would silently open the door, obviously not locked in those nights. When she was crying though, he would sit down in front of her door, sometimes quietly, sometimes trying to speak with her, calm her down like his grandfather did. If she was silently crying, he ended up sitting in front of the door the entire night a few times, other times his mom eventually did stop crying and would open the door shortly afterwards, hugging him close. When she was screaming, his grandfather coming to calm her down, he had to go back into his room. In those nights he often wasn't able to fall asleep again, staying awake until the next morning.  
But he just had to make sure she was still there, still with him. Most of the nightmares were about what it would be like to lose her, to suddenly find her gone one day.  
So, when the door was open, his mom sleeping instead of crying, he would often try to enter the room as quite as possible, just wanting to see if she was still breathing. Most times he ended up waking his mom up too, though. This always lead to him staying in her room overnight, cuddled up as close to her as he could.

Her arms wrapped around him, holding him close almost made him forget that it might could be the last time.

Then, his moms condition got worse and she was brought to a hospital and had to stay there. He could only see her during the visiting hours now, and at night, when the nightmares came back, all he could do was pull the blanket over his head and wait to fall asleep again. Sure, his grandfather was around, but that just wouldn't be the same. It couldn't, not now, not even in a hundred years, no, never. No one could make him feel as safe as his mom did.

During the days, in the morning and after he would come back from school, he'd sometimes talk to his grandfather. The conversations they had were mostly short and rather one-sided, his grandfather almost always starting them. Most times though, he'd stay in his room, only going out for food and other necessary things. Or to visit his mom, something he and his grandfather did as often as possible. They would stay at the hospital for as long as they could , and often his grandfather had to literally drag him back home.

Then, he remembered how he was waiting just outside her room one day, headphones on and the volume of 'I'm not in love' by 10cc turned up as high as possible. A few days ago they got a call from his moms doctor, his grandfather answering the phone. While he didn't know all the details, he knew what the call had been about, or could assume it.  
So now he was stitting there, all alone in the hallway, his eye was still hurting from yet another fight, having tried to save a frog from some boys at his school. He remembered how his grandfather eventually took him to see his mom, who gave him a present that he would leave unopened for more than 20 years. He didn't pay attention to whoever else was in the room, aunts, uncles, niece, nephew, he didn't care. He didn't even know most of them well anyways. He only focused on his mom, who has never look as pale, fraglie, sick as she did on this day. And then, all he remembered was how she reached out her hand to him during her last moments.

"Take my hand, Peter.", she had said, voice quite and weak.

But instead of fulfilling her last wish, he turned his head away, and just a second later the steady beeping of the machines stopped. And just like that, she was gone.

And in a heartbeat, all the nightmares that woke him up at night, all those horrible dreams became reality.

He started screaming, feeling as if the world was falling apart around him. His grandfather took him out of the room and into the hallway while the doctor came running to his mom's side. He could hear the rest of his family, some screaming too, some crying, some yelling at the doctor. His grandfather then went back into the room, telling him to stay where he was before he took off. And just like that, he was left alone again.

He didn't listen. He had to leave this place. Now.

He remembered how he ran away, out of the hospital, as far as he could, even though it was dark outside. How he feel down on his knees, his vision blurry from the tears that had started to form in his eyes and were now running down his face. He didn't even try to hold them back, knowing that he couldn't. 

He didn't know how long he stayed there, unable to stop crying. He still couldn't believe that his mom was gone now, dead, that he would never see her again, be with her again. It just hurt so much.

Sitting on the ground like that, sobbing uncontrollably, he didn't hear the noise that suddenly filled the silence around him.

Or maybe he did, but just couldn't care about it.

And then, all he could see was a blinding light.


	2. Space Invader/Moonage Daydream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm sorry that this chapter took a really long time to complete. I'm not really happy with how it turned out but I just had way to much to do the last few months, mostly a lot of school-related stuff, and I just really wanted to post this at some point.  
> Also, thanks for all the nice comments, really didn't expect anyone to actually read the story. So, with all that said, I hope that some of you can enjoy this second chapter as well, at least somewhat.
> 
> (And please tell me if you find any mistakes!)

Suddenly, instead of grass, he found himself on a hard metal floor. The air around him wasn't like before, instead of a cold breeze it was warm and sticky. A smell, ten times as bad as the boys locker room after an intense sport lesson, hit him, almost making him want to throw up.

He remembered how frightened he was when he saw himself surrounded by strangers, none of them seeming human. How they would talk in languages he didn't understand growls and weird clicking sounds, some apparently laughing at how scared he was, being pushed around, poked at or lightly kicked by others. How he was dragged around, someone having grabbed his wrist, the grip so strong that it would surely leave a bruise. And how, after a while, the noise around him went quiter and quiter, the person holding his wrist letting go, and eventually everything went silent.

Then, yet another memory, how the silence was interrupted by heavy footsteps, how the strange people or whatever they were around him took a few steps back, letting whoever the footsteps belong to walk up to him. He looked around, trying to find a way to escape, anything that he could hide in. His eyes stopped at what appeared to be vent, almost like the ones at school, just big enough for him to fit in. Best thing of all, it was open, the lid lying on the ground next to. He had to give it a try. Who knew what those... aliens would do to him.

By now, whoever had been walking towards him had stopped, now standing right in front of him. He didn't look up, kept staring at the ground, waiting for the right moment to start his 'escape-plan'. When he saw a hand, the skin a strange blue color, being reached out towards him, he knew that he had to get away right now. If they got a hold of him he would never be able to get back home. This was his best chance, now, while he could still move freely.

Around him, time seemed to slow down while he suddenly remembered a conversation with his mother. They had talked about what would happen after she was gone, after she died. He was supposed to live with his grandfather then, their home would be sold off. He wouldn't have to switch to another school too, since his grandfathers house was only a few streets away from theirs, though this didn't really matter to him. It's not like he had any friends there. But then, his mother also told him to never give up, to keep going, even without her around anymore. Even making him promise it.

"Peter, please, please promise me, that even when I'm... when I'm not here anymore, that you won't give up, no matter what happens.", his mother had said while wiping his tears away softly.  
"And... and no matter what happens, I'll... I'll always be with you."  
She was crying too now, making it hard for her to keep speaking. So instead of saying all the things she wanted him to know, she reached her hand out, resting it where his heart was. Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.

"I'll be right there. Always."

He wasn't going to break that promise.

Time went back to normal and all he remembered was how he took a step back, then dashed past the blue-skinned alien, towards the vent, running faster than he had ever run in his entire life. Around him, the other aliens started shouting again, all of them trying to grab him. He didn't know how, but somehow he made it to the vent, into which he literally jumped in, crawling as far inside as he needed to be out of reach for the strangers.

The shouting went on for a while, arms being reached inside the vent, trying to pull him back outside, but none of them were able to get their hands on him. Then, just like before, the noise stopped, all he heard were hushed voices, whispering about something. Apparently, the aliens decided to try a new strategy to get him out of the vent, because suddenly they started talking again, their voices sounding calm and friendly now, as if trying to tell him that everything was alright, that he wouldn't be hurt.

But he wasn't stupid. He knew that they were lying, that as soon as he would be in arms reach for them, they would do whatever they wanted to him. He'd seen enough movies and heard stories about aliens abducting humans, using them for weird test and other things. Sure, he'd also seen 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars', with quite a few friendly aliens in it, but he'd also seen 'Alien', secretly of course. His mom, who wasn't sick during that time, wouldn't allow him to watch this movie, saying it was too scary.

In the end, he had nightmares for about two weeks. Of course his mom had been right.

He didn't have nightmares by now anymore, at least not of scary aliens. And it seemed as if he didn't really need them anymore anyways, since right now he felt like he like he was in one of those nightmares, the only difference being that this, the aliens outside the vent, the hands reaching for him, were real. It wasn't a dream that he would suddenly wake up from.

He remembered how time passed, minutes, maybe even hours. At some point, he stopped counting. The aliens seemed to realize that he wasn't going to come out, and one by one, they left, until it was completely silent once again. He crawled further into the vent, better safe than sorry, and reached for his bag, more specifically for his Walkman, only to realize that he had apparently left it outside the vent. Maybe the aliens already took it away. But as much as he wanted it back he couldn't risk to go out and look for it. That's just what the aliens wanted. Maybe this was their plan, and they were just pretending to leave, but actually they were still there, waiting for him to come out.  
So instead of putting on his headphones he curled up in a corner, pulling his legs close to his body. He would explore this strange place later, after getting some sleep. Right now he was too exhausted, and he knew that he needed to rest. Being tired wouldn't help him at all.  
And just like that, his eyes closed. He tried to imagine his mother's arms around him, her soft voice singing quietly and somehow, sleep overtook. In some way, she really was still with him.

The next days he crawled through the vents. He found out where the bathroom was, and also discovered a room that was probably supposed to be a kitchen. Of course, most of the things he saw there didn't really look edible. He wasn't even sure if most of the things would actually count as food.

While crawling through the vents, he tried to avoid the aliens as much as possible, being as quite as he could. Some still heard him though. But he made sure to stay out of reach for them, yet sometimes he would feel a hand dangerously close to finally grabbing him. He then would kick or hit the hand away, even going as far as biting one of them one time. The pained scream that followed afterwards did bring a small smile to his face. All in all, he thought he did a pretty good job at not getting caught.

There was only one problem. He was getting thirsty and hungry. But while the lack of food was still somewhat tolerable, the some couldn't be said for the lack of water. So it wasn't really a surprise when he was barely able to move after only a few days. His throat was dry, and every breath hurt. His head was aching and he felt as if he would pass out any moment. Still, he kept going, not wanting to end up as an alien test object.

Eventually, he passed out anyways. All he could remember was how his vision went dark.

☆☆☆☆☆

When he woke up, he remembered how he found himself lying on a bed, his legs and wrists strapped to it. Next to the bed was a monitor and he could hear a steady beeping. He realized that there was an IV bag too, filled with a clear liquid, it's needle in his arm. Probably to save him from dehydrating. He assumed that the aliens preferred a living test object rather than a dead one. After all, they could still kill him later on.

Looking around, at least as much as the restrains would allow it, he saw that the room looked just like the others he had seen. It was dirty, the walls and floor made out of metal, which seemed to be rusty at some places. There were multiple shelves, made out of metal too, scattered with tiny bottles, maybe containing pills and other medicine. The bottles were of all kinds of colors, and obviously weren't sorted at all. On another shelf he spotted what must be medical supplies, like scalpels, maybe a scissors or two, and some more similar things.

He knew it. He knew that he would end up like this. He had nowhere to go now, couldn't even sit up. And these aliens, they were going to do all kinds of weird test on him, probe him, maybe even cut him up. He didn't want his life to end like this!

But his thoughts were interrupted when suddenly, the door was opened and one of the aliens entered the room. The alien had a bit of a lizard-like appearance, the skin, that looked more like scales, a strange greenish color. It's eyes were a striking yellow, the pupil being more of an oval shape instead of a round circle. The alien even seemed to have fangs too, which he could see when it smiled at him.

Smiling? Great, they're not just aliens, they're psychopaths too. What did he do to deserve this?

The alien came closer, pulling a nearby chair over, and sat down on it next to the bed.

"I see you're awake, child. How are you feeling?", it asked.

The alien had a deep voice, though he wasn't exactly sure if it was male or female. It's appearance was neither masculine nor feminine.

That's when he realized, he could understand every word. He didn't before, so why did he understand what was being said now? What did they do to him?

Apparently, he must have look really confused, because the alien started to speak again.

"Translator. Injected it while you were sleeping. Should be able to understand non-human languages now.", the alien explained.

Now that was weird. Why would they put one of those... translators into him? He was a test object to them. He didn't need to know what they were saying for that. Right?

"Look, child. The Captain wants to see you too, as soon as you'd be up. Think you're feeling better for that?"

Why was the alien so friendly? Asking him how he was feeling. He would probably be dead in a few days anyways. There's no reason for those aliens to kidnap him, just to be nice to him. There had to be a reason why he was here. Maybe that captain the alien was talking about would tell him more.

"Hey there, are you listening to me?"

He remembered that the alien was still there, talking to him. So, to not get into trouble for not paying attention, he answered with a quick nod. He didn't feel like upsetting whoever had him captured.  
For a few moments, the alien kept staring at him and he wondered if he messed up now. Maybe aliens don't know what a nod or a headship means?  
But then the alien let out a sigh, his lips turning into a soft smile.

"There's no need to be scared. No one's going to hurt you, child.", the alien said gently, while reaching out his hands and undoing the restraints. Within a few seconds he wasn't strapped to the bed anymore, finally able to move freely again. The IV bag's needle was also removed, the alien apparently being as gentle as he could.  
Then the alien gave him a last look, before turning around and taking a device from a nearby shelf. Apparently this thing worked like a phone, or a walkie talkie, because suddenly he heard another voice, sounding rough and maybe a bit annoyed.

"What ya callin' for?", the voice said, the dangerous tone scaring him. Who were these people?

"Captain, the child woke up. Think he's fine to talk to now."

"Kid's up? Keep 'em like that, I'll be there in a few minutes."

And with that the call ended. The alien put his space-phone down, and looked at him again, giving him a last smile before walking towards the door. But before the alien left he turned around one last time.

"Don't worry child, the Captain isn't going to hurt you."

With that, the alien left, and he was all alone again. For a few seconds he just sat there, still trying to progress what just happened. Then, he quickly jumped off the bed, searching the whole room for an exit, maybe a vent again. And he found one, but sadly it was closed. Maybe if he found a screwdriver he would be able to open it. But before he had the time to search for one, he could hear footsteps again.

So instead of trying to escape, he went back to the bed, on the way taking one of the scalpels from one of the shelves, and sat down in the same position as before. He hid his weapon behind his back, sliding it up into his shirt's sleeve a bit. Outside he could hear someone talking by now, recognizing the voices as those of the alien he has already met, while the other reminded him of the voice from the call.

They kept talking for a bit, until eventually the door was opened and another alien, most likely the captain, walked in. The first thing that caught his eye was the skin color. The alien, this time obviously male, had blue skin, the same color as the hand that reached for him back when they just had taken him away, from his family, form his home.  
He lifted his head to get a better look at the strange alien, finding himself staring into red eyes, looking right back at him.

"Well, well...", the alien said, taking a step towards the bed, before continuing, "...see who's up. Ya caused me an' my men lots of trouble kid, y'know."

The stranger sat down on the bed too, next to him, immediately making him crawl away as far as possible, until he could feel the rooms metal wall against his back. The blue-skinned alien gave him an amused look.

"What, ya scared now? Thought ya were a tough one, with all yer kickin' and bitin', back when ya were hidin' in the vents. Took us 5 days to get ya outta there!"

He remained quite, not sure what to say, or ask. There were many questions on his mind but he was too nervous, scared, terrified, to ask any of them. His hand tightened around the scalpel while he kept looking at the stranger, who began to speak yet again.

"Yer not one for talkin' much, ain't ya? Doc, the guy ya just met, said so too. That yer bein' all quite an' silent. Ya ain't mute or somethin', right?"

He waited a bit, then shook his head, still not saying a word, now earning him a slightly annoyed glance.

"Look kid, pretty sure ya heard that already, but ain't no one here who's goin' to hurt ya. An' shakin' yer head ain't really a proper answer.", the alien told him, before pausing, apparently waiting for him to finally say something. But when he kept quite, the alien let out a sigh, standing up again.

"Alright, if ya don't wanna talk, fine. Ain't my problem." And with that, the stranger finally appeared to give up, already walking towards the door.

"I... I want to go home."

Just like that, the stranger, hand already on the handle of the door, stopped.

"Home, ya say?"

"Y..yes"

"Well, that ain't happening.", the alien said, turning back towards him again. "Yer Terra's way to far away now. Ain't going to turn around and waste any fuel to drop ya off there."

"Terra?"

"Yer home planet, kid. Shouldn't ya know that name?"

"Umm.. y...yes, I guess. B... but..."

"Well, whatever. At least ya finally speakin'! Wasn't that hard, was it?"

"What...N..no?"

"That a question?"

"N...no!"

The stranger, now clearly amused again due to his confusion, laughed loudly. And if it weren't for the hand being reached out to him again, this might would have made him feel a bit more at ease.  
But when he saw the strangers hand get closer and closer, his hold on the scalpel, still hidden behind his back, tightened yet again. And once the blue hand came to rest upon his shoulder, with one fluent movement, he pulled his tiny weapon out and striked the aliens arm.

Or tried to.

The alien caught his wrist without even looking, not even a scratch on his arm. The laughing had stopped too.

"Ya got guts, kid, I tell ya that. Could make a damn fine Ravager one day, with a bit of trainin'.", the stranger said, voice quite, almost threatening now. The grip around his wrist became tighter, making him drop the small metal knife. He was sure there would be a bruise left again, that is, if the man wouldn't just break his wrist right away.

He remembered how he thought that this was it, this was the end. That he would surely die now, after attacking one of the aliens like that, especially the captain. He closed his eyes, which were overflowing with tears by now, waiting for anything, whatever would happen to him now.

He didn't expect that the alien would just let go. With teary eyes, he looked at the stranger, probably looking even more pathetic, now that he was crying. He wanted to disappear, to shield himself from the man's red eyes, so he stared down, pulling his legs up and hugging them to his body.

He heard the alien leave, the sound of the door being closed. Once there was no one around anymore he allowed himself to make a sound, sobbing loudly. It didn't matter anyways by now. Every minute, there would be someone coming for him, whether it would be the captain himself, the alien from before, or someone else.

So when someone entered the room once more, he didn't even think about stopping his tears. He had tried to keep the promise he'd given his mom, he really did, but there was no way other than giving up now. He fought as much as he could, but this, this was a dead end.

"Still cryin', kid?"

The blue skinned alien, the captain, again. Seemed like he wanted to get rid of him personally.

But instead of pain, of being hurt, something was thrown on the bed, landing in front of his feet. He risked a look, only to suddenly sit up straight, realizing that it was his bag.

"Thought ya want yer stuff back. What'cha waitin' for, take it."

He didn't need to be told that twice. So without even taking one more glance at the man, he took his bag, opening it to see if everything was still there. To his relief, the aliens hadn't taken out anything, and nothing seemed to be damaged too. He hesitated when his hand brushed against his Walkman, wanting to take it out, to put on the headphones and drown out his surroundings, but he decided against it. He couldn't let anyone know how important the Walkman was to him. Surely they would take it away then, to make him do what they wanted.

So he put everything back into place and closed his bag again afterwards. Then he lifted his head again, back to the alien who had been watching him the entire time since giving him his things back. With his shirts sleeves, he quickly wiped the tears off his face.

"That enough cryin' for today?"

He nodded.

"Well, good, 'cause I've got other things to do than take care of ya! So ya better get up kid, ain't got all day."

Not wanting to disobey, he jumped off the bed, standing a bit awkwardly, not sure what to do now, while holding tightly onto his bag.

"Alright, ya follow me now, got it? And don't think 'bout runnin' off again! Or... or I'll eat ya!"

☆☆☆☆☆

He remembered how after a while of walking through the endless hallways, passing many aliens on the way, the captain stopped, looking around before shouting for someone he only called 'cabin boy'. And how only a few moments later, a boy, probably around 16 years old, stumbled out of a nearby room, almost tripping over his own feet. The boy didn't look as alien as most people he had seen by now, his skin having the same color as a human, no weirdly colored eyes, horns, fangs or anything like that.

"Yes, sir!", the boy said, stopping in front of the captain.

"Show the kid here 'round a bit. And make sure he ain't gonna run off again. If he crawls back into the vents, yer gonna get him outta there again."

Without saying anything else, the man left, leaving him alone with the other boy. Said boy seemed a bit overwhelmed with the situation too.

"Umm, well, hi. You're just going to follow me, and I show you where everything is, ok?", the older boy asked, leaning down a bit to be somewhat on eye level with him. He only nodded, still a bit unsure, but when the boy took off he made sure to keep up.

The boy showed him rooms he'd already seen, the kitchen as well as bathroom or the so called med bay. But he also got to know where the crews quarters were, and even the captains personal one, though obviously not entering this particular room. There were many other rooms, some engine rooms, a few others for weapons and so on. But he wasn't allowed to go in most of these too. Especially the main engine was something he had to stay away from. But apparently he wasn't alone with that, as the other boy couldn't take him there due to not being allowed to go into that room himself. Instead, he was shown other places, a room for cargo, another one that looked like the cafeteria at school, filled with enough tables for at least 100 people, if not more.

Meanwhile, the boy, who had introduced himself as Kraglin, kept talking to him. He learned that he was on a spaceship called Eclector, and that the aliens called themselves Ravagers. Apparently they were a group of mercenaries or something like that. He already learned a few names, what some of the aliens were like, who to stay away from and who he could approach. Lastly, Kraglin told him about the captain, Yondu Udonta. About what kind of species he was, a centaurian as he got to know, about a strange arrow that the captain could send through thousands of people with only a whistle if he felt like it.

He decided not to mess with the captain. At least not for now.

☆☆☆☆☆

One of the first things he remembered was the first night he spend with the crew. They all slept in one room, except for the captain of course, lying on the the floor, which was gladly covered in blankets and pillows. He snuggled in between Kraglin and a man called Tullk, both having been the most friendly towards him so far. At first he had trouble to fall asleep, annoyed by the loud snoring around him, that is, until an annoyed Kraglin handed him a pair of earplugs, telling him to finally go to sleep. He took them gladly, thanking Kraglin, and after putting them in he was finally able to close his eyes.

He remembered how he had to help out Kraglin with his work as cabin boy the following days, Kraglin having been somewhat 'promoted', now being in charge of him. So the next days were spent with a lot of cleaning, scrubbing floors and washing clothes. The tasks itself weren't to hard, he had done a lot of those things for his mom. The only problem was that, when it came to hygiene, the Ravagers were simply... disgusting. But who would expect anything else from a bunch of 'space-pirates'?  
Eventually though, he had to do all the cleaning by himself, Kraglin having gotten a real promotion, going on missions and doing jobs now.

Sometimes he would work in the kitchen too, preparing the food with the Eclectors cook. Other times, he'd be asked to help out around the ship, working on loose screws, getting small objects out of the vents and so on. Whenever he had to climb into the vents, Yondu was around, telling him what he had to look for and where. But instead of leaving afterwards, Yondu always stayed until he had gotten the job done, ruffling his hair when he would poke his head out of the vent, holding up the retrieved object.

☆☆☆☆☆

Then, there was the memory of how Yondu taught him how to shoot. He was around 9 years old then. They had taken off to a mostly inhabited planet with Yondus M-ship and upon arriving, a gun was put into his hands.

"Aim for the trees, Quill."

He did, pulled the trigger, but missed the first time.

"Try again."

Aim, pull the trigger. Another try, another miss.

"Again"

Aim. Trigger. Miss.

"Again!"

Miss. Just like before.

By now, Yondu must have lost his patience, he was sure about that.  
But instead, Yondu helped him, guiding his hands.

"Concentrate, Quill. Yer hands are shakin' too much, calm down. Just breathe in."

He did.

"And breathe out."

He did.

"And now, shoot."

He pulled the trigger again and this time he didn't miss.

Later that day he told all the other Ravagers about it, having hit his target on the 5th try. Some just rolled their eyes, others smiled at him, patting his head, a few even seemed a bit jealous. Too caught up with all the attention he was getting, he didn't see Yondu's proud smile.

☆☆☆☆☆

Another day, or rather night, he had a nightmare. Of his mom dying, all the emotions from back then resurfacing. He left the crews quarters, making sure not to wake anyone up and just walked through the Eclectors hallways, hiding from the Ravagers who had night shift. Maybe he'd find something that would take his mind off of the nightmare, that would just make him forget.

He didn't pay attention to where he was going, until he found himself passing the captains quarters, stopping for a moment. Surely Yondu wouldn't care about something like a nightmare, right?  
He was about to take off again when he heard the door to Yondus quarters open.

"Quill? What'cha doin' here, boy?"

"Nothing."

He looked at the ground as if it had just become the most interesting thing in existence, not really wanting to look at Yondu. But the captain took a step towards him, crouching down a bit.

"Petey, I can see that something's botherin' ya. What's wrong?"

"Why do you want to know? You don't care about stuff like this!", he snapped back, now a bit angry. But it was true. There was no reason for Yondu to care, especially not about something as ridiculous as a nightmare.  
He expected to be snapped back at, but to his surprise, Yondu remained calm.

"Stuff like this? What do ya mean?"

"Really... it's nothing..."

"Peter."

"Alright, I had a nightmare! Will you leave me alone now!?"

There was a moment of silence between the two of them. He knew that right now he showed weakness, something not very Ravager-like. And now he felt tears forming in his eyes too. Yet, he couldn't cry, couldn't look like the scared little kid he'd been one year ago, when he was taken from his home. He had learned that being weak would get you into trouble. There had been this one guy, rather young, maybe a bit older than Kraglin. One night the guy woke up screaming and crying, waking everyone else up too. When they found him curled up into himself, some just shook their heads, others laughed at the guy, some even insulting him. No one talked to him afterwards, and eventually, he wasn't there anymore one day.

He didn't knew what happened to the guy, but he wouldn't risk it happening to him.

He saw Yondu take a look around, before the captain took a step to the side, holding the door to his quarters open.

"Get in there, Quill. Can't have ya walkin' 'round the ship this late."

For a moment, he stared at the captain confused, before quickly walking past Yondu, entering the room. As soon as he was inside, Yondu closed the door behind them, locking it, like he always did.

"Ya stay in here for the night. Don't want the others to think yer weak.", the captain said while walking towards his bed, lying down and turning so he wasn't facing him.

He didn't know why Yondu was doing this, helping him out like that. Sure, there were times when Yondu was nice to him, at least by Ravager standards, but he didn't expect that he would do something like this. Yondu never let people into his quarters and yet, he was here now. He felt as if he needed to say something, to thank Yondu, so he walked over to the captains bed, first unsure, but then tapping on the mans shoulder.

"Yondu?", he asked a bit shyly.

"What'cha want Quill? Can't ya see that I'm tryin' to sleep!"

"Yes, sorry. I just... thank you."

This, for some reason, got Yondu to turn around a bit, so that they were looking at each other again.

"For what?", the captain asked, voice a slightly irritated tone.

He answered, his voice trembling a bit: "For, uhm, letting me stay here even though...even though I'm weak. Cryin' over a nightmare isn't really Ravager-like, right?"

Another tear made it's way down his face, and then another, and then a few more. He knew that he was risking to be kicked off the ship, dropped off somewhere, or maybe even worse, but what did it matter? Yondu had already seen him cry, it didn't matter if he stopped or kept crying.

He heard the captain sigh, followed by the feeling of hands coming to rest on his shoulders. Lifting his head his eyes met Yondus red ones, the captain now having sat up on the bed again.

"Look, Peter, it ain't about bein' weak. Yer still a kid, it's fine if ya cry."

"But the others..."

"Just don't cry in front of them then! If ya feelin' down, come and talk with me!"

"Talk? With you?" That just sounded ridiculous.

"Trust me, I know a few things 'bout nightmares. Sometimes life ain't easy."

He had wondered what Yondu meant back then. While he already assumed that the captain probably didn't have the best life so far he didn't know any details. Those, he would learn about later, much later...

So, in the end, he stayed in the captains quarters for the night, even being allowed to sleep on the bed. Definitely an offer he wouldn't turn down.  
Curled up underneath the blanket, cuddled up between the many pillows that were lying on the bed, he fell asleep.

But apparently he had decided that the pillows weren't good enough for him anymore while he was sleeping and had turned around to cuddle up to Yondu instead, because on the next day he was woken up by being kicked off the bed, followed by a lot of angry screaming.

☆☆☆☆☆

He remembered how he was taken out, finally, for a job when he just turned 10. It was simple, just stealing some kind of jewelry. He was teamed up with Kraglin, who was almost 18, almost an adult, now. All they had to do was enter a small cove, the jewelry supposed to be at the coves end, completely unprotected. Still, they had taken guns with them, ready to shoot at anyone who would get in their way.

He could still remember how excited he was, the memory still as clear as if it had been just a few days ago. The cove had been extremely dark, so they had attached flashlights to their guns. At first they were able to walk normally, but then they got to a part filled with all kinds of plants blocking their way. So, the job that would have taken them around an hour to complete now was a 4 hour adventure, cutting down the plants and tripping over roots.

At some point they even were attacked by a carnivorous plant. He didn't even realize what was happening until he suddenly heard Kraglin shout out his name. There wasn't even enough time to turn around fully when he felt himself being pulled down to the ground by the other Ravager, barely in time for the attacking plant to miss him. Kraglin quickly pulled him along into cover behind a few rocks.

"Damn it, Peter, what was that!? That plant almost got you!", Kraglin shouted at him.

"I don't know, I just didn't see it!", he replied.

"It's a giant, green, moving plant, how could you not have seen it!?"

"I just did, I wasn't paying attention! This was supposed to be an easy mission!"

"Well, it's not easy anymore! That's how missions work, you can't know how easy or hard they'll be in the end! So don't...", sighing, Kraglin seemed to calm himself down a bit, before continuing, now much quieter: "Just be careful, ok? You ending up injured would only make the mission much more difficult. So pay more attention."

He nodded and their conversation ended. Instead, they took their guns, aiming it at the plant and shot until their dangerous enemy finally stopped moving.

In the end, they had gotten back to the Eclector unharmed, having stolen as much jewelry as they could carry.

And having finished his first mission successfully, he was also allowed to go on more afterwards, though still not alone yet. Whatever mission or job he'd go on also shouldn't involve too much fighting for now, so the following few times he was send out with some of the other Ravagers were relatively easy mission too. But he didn't really mind that, as long as he actually was allowed to go out. Any mission felt like an adventure to him, always something new to experience, something new to see and learn.  
And while he did sometimes wish to be able to actually do a job completely on his own, especially when the other Ravagers ordered him around, he was glad to have company most times. After all he'd be dead if Kraglin hadn't been around when they encountered that weird plant. And by watching and observing how the other Ravagers handled whatever situation they may end up in, learning was pretty easy. He learned to pay more attention to his surroundings, got more cautious, more careful. 

...and when he went on a mission with some of the Ravagers they'd probably protect him, which would prove to be quite useful in the following years. Because he surely didn't end up in a dangerous situation just this once, but rather a lot of times.

☆☆☆☆☆

A few days later, Kraglin did turn 18 and got his own ship, and he and most of the Ravagers took off to a planet called Contraxia. But while Kraglin and the others left, he wasn't allowed to go there. No, instead he had to stay on the mostly empty Eclector and use the time to clean up the ship a bit. Instead of doing that though he ended up listening to music while dancing through the empty hallways. Of course the ship wasn't completely empty but the few Ravagers that had remained on the ship were nowhere to be found. And with almost everyone gone like that, he could do almost everything he wanted, no one would know.

So, when he passed the hallway leading to the main engine, of course he had to take a look at it, even if he wasn't allowed in that room. He didn't know what he expected, but what he saw looked surprisingly save. The room in which the main engine was in had a rather round shape, the main engine itself being located in the centre of the large room. The path leading to it could be best described as a bridge, since there was nothing underneath it. Taking a step closer to the railing, he looked down. He couldn't even see the ground from here.  
Stepping back he took in the rest of the room. There were several gear wheels, wires and cables and some pipes, but nothing that seemed dangerous. Some of the gear wheels were working, but most weren't moving.

He just had to go exploring then. If he wouldn't touch anything he should be fine and no one would ever find out that he had actually been in this forbidden room. And even if he did, accidentally of course, touch anything, surely that wouldn't cause any trouble.

Well, at least he believed that.

Walking towards the main engine, he remembered how his lips turned into a smile, feeling the thrill of doing something he wasn't allowed to do. It had been exciting, almost like a small adventure, but completely on his own this time. He didn't remember how much time he spent in the engine room but at some point he had to sit down for a while. Dancing around all day had made him more exhausted than he thought but a short break surely would fix that. So he leaned back against the railing of the bridge, not minding to sit on the hard metal floor. The engine was making quite sounds as he now realized after turning off his Walkman, barely louder than a whisper. The rooms temperature was rather warm too, another thing he hadn't realized before and soon even the metallic floor somehow felt comfortable.

Just a short break, he told himself while allowing his eyes to close for a while.

He didn't expect to fall asleep.  
And he surely didn't expect to wake up to find himself in what looked like a completely different room.

Around him, everything was moving, and not just slowly but at a fast pace. There was steam, making it hard to see and the temperature had risen from nicely warm to unbearably hot. Just a few steps in front of him, the machines had started working, gear wheels turning, loud sounds coming from every side. It even felt as if the bridge leading to the main engine was shaking.

Standing up and moving to the direction the exit should be, his feet got caught up in some wires, making him stumble and fall backward, his head hitting the metallic railing he had just leaned on. Luckily, he didn't end up unconscious. Still, bringing his hand up, he could feel the wound, blood running out of it. At first he tried to stop the bleeding, pressing his hand onto the wound but the blood flow just didn't seem to stop. He started to feel dizzy and when he tried to stand up his legs felt weak and he feel down again. Clutching his Walkman in his hand, he crawled away form the working gear wheels and whatever else the different machines were called, until his back hit the hard wall. Now, all he could do was stay here and wait. Maybe the other Ravagers were back already? What time was it anyways? Surely someone would realize that he wasn't there, doing the work he was supposed to do. Or would they just shrug it off, ignore it?

It took hours for something to happen, or at least that's what it felt like. He wasn't too sure how much time had passed. By then, his eyes had fallen shut multiple times, but the loud engine and machines around him always woke him up again. His wound was still bleeding, though not as bad as before. Nevertheless, by now his hands were covered red from trying to stop the blood which had run down through his hair and onto his shirt.  
Then, over the machines loud sound, he heard someone screaming his name.

"Quill! Quill, ya here boy?!"

Yondu!

"I... I'm here.", he wanted to say, but his voice came out as nothing but a whisper. He panicked, fearing that Yondu hadn't heard him, that he would leave again, searching for him somewhere else.

But a moment later, he was picked up.

" 's alright Quill, yer save now. Everything's gonna be fine, don't ya worry."

What followed was a bit of a blur, but eventually they made it out of the engine room. Finally no more steam was clouding his vision and no more loud sounds of working machines could be heard. The wound from hitting his head still hurt but by now he didn't really pay much attention to it. He was just glad to be out of that room, and most importantly, alive.  
Still, he wasn't put down again.

"What happened to yer head, boy?", he heard Yondu ask.

"Uhmm... I think I... tripped? O... over some wires."

"Ya tripped?"

"...yes? And then I kinda... hit my head on the... uhm... the railing.."

"Yer a real piece of work, Quill, y'know. Why did ya even go in there? I told ya not to."

"I was just curious! Everyone tells me not to go in there and I wanted to see why!"

"Well, hope ya learned yer lesson! Next time I ain't gettin' ya out of whatever ya gotten yerself into!"

And this was, surprisingly, the first time he got a more serious injury on the Eclector. Before, he only ended up getting smaller cuts while helping in the kitchen or a few bruises while working on the ship, but nothing that needed the Doc to take a look at. His wound was taken care of later on of course, the Doc shaking his head while bandaging up the injury.

☆☆☆☆☆

He was also 10 when he was taught how to fly a ship. If he proved that he was good at it, he would get his own M-ship, when he would turn 18, just like Kraglin. And he really wanted that.  
He learned how to fly in one of the oldest M-ships the Ravagers had, an orange one that had already been damaged quite a bit, apparently only used for flying lessons now.

As it turned out, he was naturally talented. Within a few weeks, he was almost as good as some of the older Ravagers, who were, and he was proud of that, impressed. Soon, not even an asteroid field could stop him. To the beat of his music he would fly through it, not even close to hitting one of the asteroids. He even heard someone say that "the kid was born to pilot his own ship" one day.

So, starting from then, he was taken out for jobs more and more, but now as the teams pilot, to fly everyone from one place to another. But he also kept learning how to fight, getting better at using weapons and at some point even trying out different gadgets and techniques.

There were quite a few Ravagers who wanted to help him out by teaching him their very own fighting style, but most just didn't feel like they were right for him. He wasn't one to fight with knifes, an axe or a spear but a sniper rifle or shotguns also didn't feel right. And no, he definitely wasn't going to use a fork as his weapon of choice, as one guy apparently did. (Seriously, what the hell was wrong with this guy?)

Rather than that he eventually got to duel-pistol wielding, the pistol actually being the first weapon he learned to use. The only one using this style of fighting on the Eclector had been Tullk. He had quickly realized that this was the fighting style he felt most comfortable with, and asked the older Ravager if he could learn it as well. Of course, the answer to that was a "yes", even if some of the others questioned his choice.

☆☆☆☆☆

The first time he got sick was when he was around 12. He was working in one of the quieter parts of the ship, no one else around, having to clean up and see if everything was still working the way it should. He had been feeling unwell since he woke up, but didn't think much of it.

Until it got worse.

He started to feel feverish, his head hurting just as bad as it did during the 'engine room accident'. His legs felt as if they would give out every moment. So, doing the most reasonable thing he could do, he took off to the med bay, hoping to find the Doc there. And somehow, even though every step hurt, he did make it there, only to find the door locked. No one was there, even the hallway was empty.

Exhausted he sunk down next to the door. It would be best to wait for someone to come, rather than running off and searching for help on his own. At some point, someone just HAD to pass through this hallway. He felt himself falling asleep, and almost would have, if it wouldn't have been for a voice calling out to him.

"P...Petey? What're you doing here?", he was asked, recognizing the voice as Kraglins.  
When he didn't respond to that, Kraglin seemed to get worried, shaking his shoulders, trying to keep him awake.  
"Peter! Don't fall asleep, ok!? PETER!"

To this, his eyes finally closed, drifting off into unconsciousness. He thinks he heard Kraglin screaming for help.

When he woke up, he found himself rested on a bed in med bay. He felt way better than before, the headache having disappeared fully, but he still felt a bit feverish, yet not as if he was burning up. Taking a look at the rest of the room he spotted that a chair had been put up next to the bed, which Kraglin currently occupied. The young Ravager was looking at him with a concerned expression, only shifting into a relived smile after seeing that he was finally awake again.

"Peter! About time you wake up! ", Kraglin said, leaning forward a bit to get a better look at him before continuing: "I was worr.... I thought you were going to die!"

Die?

"Die? But... I just had a fever? At least it felt like one...", he asked.

"Just a fever? No, you had a Naverian flu, real bad thing. You probably got it back when we were on Lacenia", Kraglin explained.

Lacenia. The last planet they went to. And from what he had seen, it was mostly a desert. The whole planet had been covered with red sand, leaving almost no contrast between the ground and the orange sky. There had been no wind, not even a tiny breeze, making the hot temperatures even worse than they already were.  
Good that they only had to search for some glowing rocks back then. They found plenty of those in no time and managed to get off the planet in less than an hour.

But back to the situation at hand.

"Naverian flu? What's that?", he asked.

"Well, I'm not a doctor, but I know that it's pretty common in this solar system. Don't know where it comes from though, but once you get it, you're never getting it again. Just ask the Doc about it when he comes back.", Kraglin told him, leaning back in the chair again.

"Ok, I'll do tha... hold on, where's the Doc?"

Why wasn't the doctor, the one supposed to take care of him now, here?

"Uhh, guess he's telling the capt'n about what happened, don't know.", Kraglin answered. "And you probably have to stay here for a while too, Naverian flu is contagious."

"Contagious? Then why are you here?"

"Oh, I had it a few years ago. As I said, you can only get it once, so I wont be getting it again."

"So you've already been in this solar system before?"

"Yeah, was before I joined the Ravagers. But it's a somewhat of a long story so...", Kraglin said, voice getting a quieter. As if he wasn't sure if he should talk about it.

But he was curious now. While he did like Kraglin, he didn't know that much about him, only his age, that he was Xandarian and that he joined the Ravagers when he was about 14 years old. Might try to get to know him a bit more now.

"Well...", he started. "I'm not really going anywhere for a while, right?"

This got the other young Ravager to smile a bit again.

"Guess that's true... ok, but you have to listen, I'm not going to tell it to you twice."

Like this, Kraglin told him. He learned that Kraglin had lived on Xandar until he was 13 years old. Apparently, with that age, children could enroll in some kind of military school to have better chances at joining the Nova Corps later on. But sometimes, there were parents who would sign their children up for this against the children's wishes. At least that's what Kraglins parents did.  
So, one day before he had his first day at the military school, Kraglin had run away from home, stole a ship and left the planet. For the next months he had been mostly alone, sometimes joining up with different mercenary groups for a short time, but never staying longer than he had to. The only way to get what he needed to stay alive, like food, fuel for the ship and so on had been stealing. And things worked out, that is, until he got to the Naverian solar system, where Lacenia was located.

He had gotten the Naverian flu rather quickly, and would have died, if the Ravagers wouldn't have picked him up then. They allowed Kraglin to stay once he felt better again, as their cabin boy. Obviously, Kraglin gladly accepted that offer.

The question why the Ravagers even were in that part of the galaxy back then went mostly unanswered though. All he got to know was that they picked up some kind of cargo which had to be delivered somewhere.

But whatever. Maybe they just picked up some more glowing rocks...

☆☆☆☆☆

When he was 13 he went to Xandar with Kraglin and Yondu, since they had to sell something to a guy called the Broker. But when he was about to follow them, the two older Ravagers told him to wait outside, even though it had been quite cold on Xandar during that time

So he ended up standing next to the door, hoping that they wouldn't take too long. Sadly, they did.

After waiting for ten minutes he got bored of standing around on the same spot, already freezing a bit as he was only wearing a rather thin jacket, so he decided to walk around a bit. He made sure to stay near the building Yondu and Kraglin were currently in though so that they could see him when they were finally done with whatever they were doing.

Eventually he passed a shop, the stores window catching his attention. Or more specifically, one item. It seemed to be just a simple red scarf, but right now he could really need something like that.

He decided to look if he had some money, searching through his jackets pockets, but of course, he hadn't taken any with him.

Maybe he could just steal it? He took a step closer towards the window, trying to get a better look at the inside of the small shop. Some shelves with different kinds of things on them, mostly clothes, a few strange plants, apparently for decoration and finally, the counter. A woman with reddish skin and light brown hair was standing behind it, currently seeming to read a book. From what he could see he assumed that she was Krylorian.  
Otherwise, there was no one else in the store. He couldn't steal anything like that. As soon as he would enter the store, the woman's eyes would be on him, on her only customer.  
Pulling his jacket closer around his body, he stepped back again, letting out a sigh.

"Hey there, young man. Are you here all alone?"

Startled he turned around, finding himself standing in front of a Nova Corps Officer, or Corpsman, as they were called. A rather young one, probably just at the start of his career.

"Uhm, no, I'm just waiting for my... my parents..."' he answered, in the sweetest, most childish voice he could manage.

"And where are your parents?", the Corpsman asked back leaning down a little bit.

He took a look around, maybe Yondu and Kraglin were finally done and had left the Brokers place. But when he still couldn't see them anywhere, he turned back to look at the man again.

"They went shopping, but I didn't want to go with them. It's always so boring.", he whined, hoping his little 'act' was convincing enough. It was a good thing that he was rather small for his age, so the whole 'cute kid' thing worked out even better.

Just like now.

The Corpsman gave him a friendly smile, nodding, before looking at the stores window too.

"So, what were you looking at? You were standing in front of that window quite a while."

"Uhm, the, the scarf. It looks warm, and it's a kinda cold right now..."

This brought the Corpsman's attention back to him. The mans expression had changed, now rather worried.

"Are you cold?"

He nodded.

"Alright.", the Corpsman said while heading towards the shops door. "I'll be right back."

And with that the man disappeared into the store. Through the window he could see the man walk up to the counter and speak to the woman. The Corpsman pointed into his direction, making the woman look at him. She then smiled, walked towards the window and picked up the displayed scarf, waving at him friendly when she did so. He waved back shyly with a forced a cute smile.  
The woman then made her way back behind the counter where the man paid for the scarf. They talked a bit afterwards, and then the officer left the shop again.

"Can't have freezing out here, right?", the Corpsman greeted him before handing him the red scarf. He gave the man a confused look.  
"Come on, put it on, it's warmer this way."

He did so, carefully wrapping the scarf around his neck, whispering a quite "Thank you" to the man, who just gave him another smile, before looking through the shops window, back at the woman.

"You know, that girl in the store there, her name is Karman-Kan and she's the most beautiful and lovely girl I've ever seen."

Now he looked back through the window too, just like the officer did.

"If I ever get married, then only if she would be my wife."

Wow, cheesy.

"Hey, what's you name, young man? Mine's Rhomann Dey. Corpsman Rhomann Dey to be exact.", the man said, proudly pointing to his name tag, on which his name 'Dey' was written too.

What should he tell the man? His real name?

"Uhmm, my name is..."

"DEY, GET OVER HERE! WE HAVE TO GO, UNIT 10 AND 12 HAVE REPORTED THAT THERE ARE RAVAGERS ON XANDAR!", a loud voice suddenly interrupted him.  
He looked around again, trying to find the source of the shouting, and spotted another Corpsman running up to him and Dey. The other man seemed young too, probably around officer Deys age too.

"BUT SAAL, WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THIS CHILD? HE'S ALONE RIGHT NOW!", Dey screamed back, obviously not wanting to leave him alone.

"JUST TELL HIM TO WAIT HERE THEN! IF HIS PARENTS DON'T PICK HIM UP AGAIN THEN YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF HIM! BUT WE HAVE TO GO! NOW!"

With that, the other man disappeared again. Corpsman Dey watched the man take off, eventually following but not before he turned around on last time.

"I have to go, but I'll promise I come back. If your parents aren't back then we'll look for them together, ok?"

"Yes, sure.", he said. "And thank you for the scarf."

The Corpsman gave him one last smile and then disappeared just like the other man had before.

For a while, he stood where he was, only now realizing what the other officer had actually said.  
Reports that Ravagers where spotted. He turned around, running back to the Brokers place and went inside, even if he had been told to wait.

"Quill, what the hell ya doing in here?! I told ya to wait outside!"

"Yeah, Capt'n told you to wait outside! Can't you listen?"

He ignored what Yondu and Kraglin said. They had to leave, or else the Nova Corps might find them.

"I... The Nova Corps, they... I overheard some of them, and apparently they saw some of the others and now there's reports that 'there are Ravagers on Xandar'.", he blurred out, making sure to leave out the part about him actually talking to one of the officers.

"These idiots!", Yondu said, clearly annoyed that some of the crew weren't even able to keep a low profile for a while. They weren't even wearing their normal Ravager clothes, no, they had put on some more casual clothing to fit in better with the Xandarian society.  
"Alright, we're leavin' this place! Done here anyway!"

Just like this, he was grabbed by his arm and pulled out of the building. They managed to get back to their M-ship without a problem, and quickly took off, heading back to the Eclector. Later on, they then found out that three guys that had just recently joined the Ravagers had been captured by the Nova Corps.

They left without them.

But that's not the end of this memory yet. Apparently, that new scarf of his has caught Kraglins attention, because at night, when they were lying in the crews quarters again, he was asked were he got the scarf from.

"Uhmm, I... I stole it.", he answered, hoping it wasn't to obvious that he was lying. As it seemed, it wasn't, because Kraglin just nodded, accepting his answer without any more questions.

☆☆☆☆☆

Another time, about a year later, he went to a black market the first time. He had taken some of his money with him this time in case he would find something that he wanted. While the other Ravagers went to buy needed things like fuel, food, medicine (and alcohol...), he was allowed to take a look around, at least as long as they could still see him.

He came across one merchant who was selling his things in a worn down tent. One the tables, he spotted a few things that were from Earth, or Terra, as everyone in space apparently called it. Some old magazines, a few books and movies. Tons of movies.

There were movies like 'Rocky' and 'The Terminator' but he also spotted 'The Last Unicorn'. Then, 'Alien', which brought back the memories of his mom comforting him after his nightmares, and even 'Die Hard', which he had only seen trailers of. More movies included 'Jaws', 'Dirty Dancing', 'Mad Max' and a movie called 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. For some reason, the man on this movies cover reminded him of someone, but he couldn't exactly say who.

To get a better look at it, he reached for the movie, when he suddenly saw another one. Of course, that other movie was 'Footloose', the best movie in history. The movie he watched hundreds of times with his mom years ago. That he knew every word of.

"So here you are, kid. Capt'n told you to say in sight, didn't he?", he suddenly heard someone behind him say. Turning around, he saw that this 'someone' was Horuz, followed by Tullk. How long had he been looking at the movies?

The two Ravagers were taking a look around the tent they were in.  
"There's a lot of terran stuff in here.", Tullk noticed, directing his attention towards the movies then. "What's that?"

"Oh, that are movies."

"Terran movies? You know that we can't watch them on the Eclector, right?", Horuz said, shaking his head and continuing: "You're wasting you're time with that, kid. If you want something, get something useful. But not...

"If he wants one of these movies, then let him buy one. It's his money.", Tullk interrupted, then looking at him again.

"I'm sure we'll work out something so you can watch your movies. So, which on do you want?"

Behind them, Horuz let out a sigh, probably rolling his eyes before leaving the tent. The Ravager got annoyed by him rather quickly, but otherwise they actually got along with each other pretty well. And compared to some of the other Ravagers, Horuz was definitely one of the nicer ones on the Eclector.

But back to the movies.

"Uhm, this one.", he said, holding up 'Footloose', which was still in his hands.

"You sure?"

He nodded.

"Well, then buy it. You can spend your money on whatever you want, it's yours after all."

He gave Tullk a smile, before walking up to the merchant who was looking rather amused by the scene he had just witnessed. In the end, he spent almost all his money on the movie, but he knew that it had been worth it.

Back on the Eclector, the reactions to him having spent money on a movie he couldn't even watch were mostly negative. From heads being shook, to more annoyed sighs and even insults, being called 'stupid terran' and so on (nothing new though...). But he didn't care. It was his money after all, he could spend it on whatever he wanted.

Yet, a few days later, the movie was still lying in his very own Ravager-locker, not having been watched until now. He was working on the M-ships that day, just checking if any of them could need repair. Especially one damaged orange M-ship, the one he learned how to fly with, needed a lot of fixing. Said ship was actually the one he worked on most, tinkering on it whenever he could. Learning to fly with this ship had caused some kind of emotional connection, so by now he just called it 'his ship' most times, even though it didn't belong to him. He was so focused on his work that he didn't notice someone walking towards him. Only when the person lightly tapped on his shoulder, he turned around, ending up facing one of the newer Ravagers, a rather tall guy with pitch black eyes and green skin, or rather large green scales, giving him a rather bug-like appearance. The guy had just joined the Ravagers about 2 weeks ago and while he didn't know the guys name yet, he was quite friendly.

"Quill, Tullk told me to get ya, he wants to speak with you.", the guy said, his voice calm, sounding somewhat like an echo.

Huh?

"About what?", he asked the Ravager.

"Hell if I know, didn't tell me anything. Just get there fast, cargo room 6."

With that, the guy took off again. For a moment he remained where he was until he put away the tools he had used to work on the M-ships and went to the cargo room. The Eclector had about 20 cargo rooms, room 6 was used for any, mostly mechanical, junk that might be useful at some point. The room was cramped with boxes, leaving only a narrow path to get through. But for a 14 years old, he still was rather small, at least compared to the older boys he had seen back when he had been on Terra, making it easier for him to actually make his way through the path without knocking anything over. After a while, just walking around yet another corner, he finally spotted Tullk. He called out the older Ravagers name while heading towards him, asking why he was supposed to be here.

Instead of answering the question right away, the older Ravager held up some device, looking almost like an old VHS player.

"We did a few changes on that thing, should be able to play that movie of yours now."

Wait, what? That's why he had been called to the cargo room?

"Wow, thanks, that's really cool, but I still have to try to fix the M-ships now. No one really liked that I spent money on the movie anyways, especially not Yondu. If he finds out I'm not working..."

"You think the capt'n doesn't know you're down here? He even stopped by a few times, asking if we'd be able to get that thing to work."

This caught him by surprise.

"Hold on, so I'm not getting into trouble?", he asked, still a bit confused by the whole situation.

"No, you won't.", Tullk assured him. While it still was a strange situation, he tried not to think too much about it but rather just accept the free time given to him because that didn't happen to often.

That's when he realized something.

"You said 'we', right? Someone else has been working on that...", he pointed at the player. "...with you?"

"Well, yes, made it easier. Two people get work done faster than one, and Kraglin offered to help as soon as he heard about that little project. You might want to thank him too.", the older Ravager explained before turning around and walking further into the room.

"C'mon, let's see how good of a job we've done with that movie-playing thing. Just need to plug it in and then it should work."

And work, it did. He still couldn't believe it, that he'd actually get to see THAT movie again, and that the other Ravagers actually made it possible.

As soon as Tullk had made sure that everything was working just the way it should the Ravager left him alone, letting him watch the movie all by himself. The player had been attached to a small screen, put up on some of the boxes. Another box had been placed in front of it as a seat, even with a pillow on top of it. While it definitely wasn't the most comfortable place, he still felt happy in that very moment. It was also then that he realized that sometimes, he actually enjoyed being with the Ravagers. They weren't completely bad, but definitely not good either. But they still cared for him, in their very own way. And sometimes, they almost felt like some sort of family.

Well, a really weird family.

But he didn't mind that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


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